A power to act on warming

The test of President Obama's seriousness about addressing climate change is not his pending decision on the much-debated Keystone XL pipeline. It's whether he effectively consigns coal-fired power plants - one of the biggest sources of carbon emissions - to the ashcan of history.

Since his re-election, Obama has signaled a new focus on climate change. "Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms," he said in an inaugural address that devoted eight sentences to the issue, more than he spent on any other item on his policy agenda.

The strong words from Obama were a welcome surprise. Few doubted that the president understood and accepted the scientific consensus about humankind's impact on the climate.

As if Obama needed more of an incentive, a new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration study published last month in the journal Geophysical Research Letters confirms that temperatures have been rising ever since the Industrial Revolution.

The difference with this study is that it does not rely on direct temperature readings, which climate-change skeptics deride as skewed and unreliable. Nor does it use data from examination of tree rings. Instead, it relies on proxy data from 173 sources such as ice cores, lake and ocean sediments, mineral deposits and historical records of agricultural harvests. Plotted on a graph, the upward trend looks just like climate scientists said it would.

Earlier this month, demonstrators rallied in Washington to urge Obama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline, which would ship crude oil from the Athabasca tar sands in Alberta, Canada, to ports in Texas. Organizers claimed it was the biggest climate protest ever in the United States.

Activists say the process of extracting oil from the tar sands generates more carbon emissions than conventional means of oil recovery. It is true that the pipeline might accelerate exploitation of the tar sands. But the oil is likely to be extracted eventually, regardless of the pipeline decision.

Obama has the opportunity to cut carbon emissions by hastening a transition already under way.

The Environmental Protection Agency has the power to issue rules limiting carbon emissions per unit of electricity generated. Tough, science-based rulemaking would give utilities an incentive to switch from coal to gas - and effectively guarantee that no new coal-fired plants would be built.

Obama has to weigh the political impact on Democratic elected officials in coal-producing states such as West Virginia. But coal-state Democrats are already under pressure because of the shift to natural gas that just happens to be occurring while a Democrat is in the White House. They will have to deal with voters' economic concerns whether Obama acts or not.

But that is a journey of many years. Obama can take us many miles down the road with a stroke of his pen.

EugeneRobinson, eugenerobinson@washpost.com.

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A power to act on warming

The test of President Obama's seriousness about addressing climate change is not his pending decision on the much-debated Keystone XL pipeline.